The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

10/14/2024

PLEASE NOTE: 

With the days ticking down to 11/5, learn the deeper stakes in this year's election. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below. 

I wish every day was Thanksgiving day around the world. I wish every day every human on waking up gave thanks for such gifts as: Our breath; the flowers on the earth that millions of years ago fine-tuned 

The Landing of Columbus in America, study for a painting (destroyed in 1777) for the Sala del Minor Consiglio, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa. Artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons. 

oxygen levels so that we can breathe. Our lungs that allow us to breathe, and know how to do it without any coaching from us. The earth and its soil that yields the plants that feed us. The supernova that birthed the earth and our sun. The sun. The rain. The Sky where they dwell. Father Sky therefore, along with Mother Earth. The original fireball that spun our universe into action. The silence that accompanied that event. 

I thank the indigenous peoples of my life who have blessed me with a sense of gratitude and purpose, because they never succumbed to the species narcissism (Pope Francis’ word) that ignored all these ancestors and gifters that made and still make our existence possible. Whose ceremonies all take place within this bigger picture of “all our relations,” i.e. all of creation, all of nature, all 13.8 billion years of it and all 2 trillion galaxies of it.

We Are Still Here: 400 years of Wampanoag history. Video by Mayflower 400 UK. 

A special thanks to my Lakota teacher and friend Buck Ghosthorse, who set up a sweat lodge on Holy Names College over a three-year period so that our faculty, students and staff at the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality (ICCS) could do sweats on a regular basis. And who led me on a vision quest

the year I was silenced by the Vatican, an experience that immersed me in a profound realization of the spirits of the land that seek to bless us stumbling humans. (With Buck’s permission, I share the essence of my experience in my autobiography.) 

He also invited me to participate in a number of sundances with his community in Goldendale, Washington, wherein I experienced Spirit and spirits working to heal us wounded humans, so that we could resurrect in this lifetime and be agents of biophilia and compassion, and not be reluctant to make sacrifices for one another.  

A special thanks too to Sister Jose Hobday, a Seneca woman and Franciscan sister, chosen at 7 years old by her tribe to be a storyteller. She was the first to teach me how to pray the four directions, and who taught our students over many years the spirit ways of indigenous peoples, including the flower pelting ceremony. And who, when I was attacked by the Vatican, stood by me and our work at UCS, when she was herself attacked by rabid Catholics who cancelled invitations for her to speak because of her affiliation with us. And for her wonderfully rich and meaningful stories. For her courage and her integrity therefore.   

And thanks to Eddie Kneebone, the Aboriginal activist and teacher who taught in our Australian summer workshop about aboriginal ways, and who came to Oakland to teach our creation spirituality students with two duffel bags full of boomerangs and of Aboriginal paintings and shared their meanings with us. And who said in an interview that creation spirituality reminded him of the “dreamtime” in his own tradition.*

And Linda Neale, for her book The Power of Ceremony: Restoring the Sacred in Our Selves, Our Families,

"The Power of Ceremony" book cover by Linda Neale. Image from Better World Books. 

Our Communities, and her husband Rod McAfee, an Akimel O’odham elder, for bringing so many in America and Europe over decades of work to understand and practice sweat lodges and other ceremonies. And her inviting me to write a foreword to her excellent book on the power of ceremony. 

These are just four indigenous teachers who have blessed my journey and my students’ journeys over the years, inviting us to drink of the wisdom of ancient ways of praying, celebrating, thanking. I pray that all peoples of the Earth could learn to pray as indigenous peoples teach us. Maybe then we would work together to save the Earth, cease denying her suffering, and recover a common sense of the Sacred that surrounds us every day in every way. Our Cosmic Mass owes much to the wisdom of such ceremonies.

*See “An Aboriginal Response: Eddie Kneebone,” in Catherine Hammond, ed., Creation Spirituality and The Dreamtime, pp. 87-94.

See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest. 

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. 

And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths. 

And Jose Hobday, “Seeking a Moist Heart: Native American Ways for Helping the Spirit,” in Fox, Western Spirituality: Historical Roots, Ecumenical Routes, pp. 317-329. 

And Fox, “Indigenous Wisdom and Shamanism: Meister Eckhart Meets Eddie Kneebone, Black Elk, and Bill Everson,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, pp. 201-220. 

And Fox, The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages.

Banner image: Two Native Americans playing music at a powwow. Photo by Gabriela Custódio da Silva on Pexels. 

Statement of Solidarity with Israel/Palestine.

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Queries for Contemplation

Have you undergone sweat lodges or other indigenous ceremonies by invitation of indigenous leaders? What did these ceremonies do for you? Do you wish everybody was praying in these ways? 

Recommended Reading

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Western Spirituality: Historical Roots, Ecumenical Routes

In this book, Fox gathers scholars from various cultures and traditions such as Helen Kenik, Jon Sobrino, Nicolas Berdyaev, Rosemary Ruether, M. D. Chenu, Mary Jose Hobday, Ronald Miller, Monika Hellwig, James Kenney, Justin O’Brien and others to approach creation spirituality from many traditions and many angles. 
“An exciting and important book…a pleasant alternative to the oppressive burden of the fall/redemption tradition.” ~ New Review of Books and Religion 

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward

The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet.

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.

For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 

To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 

To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.

Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT. 
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Creation Spirituality Conversations

Bannon, former Trump advisor and former Executive Chairman at Breitbart News. He explains how Cardinal Burke and other neofascists in the Catholic Church opposed the Second Vatican Council, which sought to update the Catholic Church. He then explains how both Leonard Leo (co-chairman of the Federalist Society board of directors, who drew up lists of potential conservative judges who were then appointed to the Supreme Court) and Kevin Roberts from the Heritage Foundation, share a right-wing Catholic ideology.

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